Late in her twentieth year, Beatrice mails a letter on the sly, sparking events that will change her life forever. The addressee is her grandmother, a legendary stage actress long estranged from her daughter, Bea's mother. Though Bea wants to become an actress herself, it is the desire to understand the old family rift that drives her to work her way into her grandmother's graces.

But just as she establishes a precarious foothold in her grandmother's world, Bea's elite Boston home life begins to crumble. Her beloved father is accused of harassment by one of his graduate students; her usually serene, self-certain mother shows signs of fallibility. And Bea is falling in love with someone many would consider inappropriate.

Powerfully written and psychologically intricate, House Lights illuminates the corrosive power of family secrets, and the redemptive struggle to find truth, forgiveness, and love.

About the Author
Leah Hager Cohen has written six novels and five works of nonfiction, including Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World, and the novels Strangers and Cousins, House Lights, and No Book but the World. She is the Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross.

Reviews
"House Lights is artfully constructed.... Cohen writes with the scrupulousness of someone fashioning a short story, in which even the smallest details must bear their weight of significance." -- Kathryn Harrison - New York Times Book Review
"Cohen offers lyrical prose, a remarkable voice, and a wealth of insights." -- Bharti Kirchner - Seattle Times
"Leah Hager Cohen takes a good, thoughtful stab at what three generations of decent women might actually want from life.... The questions and answers are all of a piece here in this excellent novel." -- Carolyn See - Washington Post
"The tension between honesty and kindness in our most intimate relationships permeates Leah Hager Cohen's insightful and beautifully written House Lights. When the 'house lights' come up in the theater, we see each other as we are instead of the artful public display on stage. This novel illumines not only its characters but our lives.... A compelling novel of special emotional and intellectual value. I've been enriched by reading this book." -- Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette
"Graceful, compassionate, and often unnervingly perceptive, House Lights explores that most familiar yet most mysterious subject, the dysfunctional family.... An astute portrait of a highly 'civilized' family plunged into a crisis that is anything but civil." -- Suzanne Berne, author of The Ghost at the Table


Awards
Winner of New York Times Notable Selection 2007.



Book Information
ISBN 9780393332728
Author Leah Hager Cohen
Format Paperback
Page Count 330
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 410g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 140mm * 23mm